Monday, November 19, 2012

Some days are more difficult. There doesn’t seem to be a
specific cause. They just happen. I figure it’s part of my mind’s effort to
fill in the void left by not having a job. Working becomes a habit after fifty
years of doing something gainful. At least the process, the ritual becomes a
habit, since the actual work changes. Getting ready for work is one of those
defining activities. When it goes away the void needs a replacement or
alternative.

I did not anticipate being jobless when I chose to be absent
from work for two months. My return was expected, the continuing need for me
expressed emphatically. Circumstances and needs change and it simply reaffirms
what Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say to Jane Curtain on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Updates,
"Well, Jane, it just goes to show you, it's always something--if it ain't
one thing, it's another."

There are things with which I can fill the hours formerly
devoted to paid employment —laundry, baking cookies, vacuuming, dusting, making
the bed, and other life stuff — but that only eliminates them from the usual
weekend or evening list of “to dos.” So, what do I do?

A lot of time is spent wrestling with depression created by
the thought that I’ve passed the point where I am able to contribute anything
to anyone. It grows to include feelings that there is no hope . . . ever.
Pragmatically, both of these ideas have more than a grain of truth. Age becomes
a handicap whether we legislate against it or not.

It’s ironic that at a tine when you need it less you want it
more, food that is. With a limited income I choose more carefully what I can
and will purchase, then I lament that I can’t have things around just to
satisfy my sweet-, sour-, salty-, or bitter-tooth. Well, I guess I could, but
then I’d not be able to afford the things that actually keep me alive. I
reflect on one of the relevant and sage lines from Firesign Theater:

“How does an old man
like you stay alive?”

“I don't eat anything. But, it doesn't affect my appetite!”

Ultimately, my present and future are fully my responsibility.
We are after all, the sum of the decisions we make. I could lament my current
circumstances, but doing this would only diminish the immense value of my work
hiatus. The truth of the assertions that we get what we give, that doing the
right thing is always the right thing to do and that negative begets negative
were proven to me everyday of that adventure.

As convenient and inviting as it is to take the mock-Latin
aphorism “Illegitimi non carborundum” as the way to confront life’s
injustice and unfairness, I hold true to the belief that if it’s going to be a
good day it’s up to me to make it so.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

There are people who approve of my obsession for bicycling;
“Good for your health.” You know, someone my age and all. It is good for my
health and even people who are not my age. Their approval of bicycling follows
a different route when it comes to bike paths.

Locally, the conflict appears regarding two separate paths.
City planners have put forth the idea of maintaining a current in-town street
as configured or eliminating the curbside lane and making it a bicycle lane.
Opposition to creating a dedicated bike lane has taken many forms and
arguments. One assertion is that drivers pay large sums of money to build and
maintain roads and should therefore be given the most suitable design. Another
argument says that people are too attached to their cars and having more bike
paths isn’t going to get people on bikes.

The tax on gasoline in Florida ranges from $0.274 to $0.0355
per gallon. My contribution, there fore is zero. I paid nothing for the same
trip. Of course, I do manage to save a gallon of gasoline at the current cost
of $3 something each.

My oft faulty logic tells me that I have a net positive in
the equation. Perhaps non-recreational riders could offer the fuel we save to
specific drivers. <shrug> Might be a few details needing to be worked out
first.

Just a silly rambling . . .

The other place where a conflict has arisen is in the
planning and construction of a bike path using the existing right of way
through a tony neighborhood. Resistance has come from the residents who seem to
believe that a bike path will open their community to an influx of bands of bad
people on Huffy and Roadmaster, fully suspended, mountain bikes and dedicated
to defacing and vandalizing their tranquil Village.

It is their position that a bike path already exists and an
additional or replacement path is unneeded or redundant. There is an
inconsistency in this assertion. The existing bike path is clearly designated
as being for the use of the community’s residents and their guests.